


all but the brightest stars

by TolkienGirl



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Character Study, Gen, I love Lucy Pevensie so much it hurts, and of course Edmund makes an appearance, name meanings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 20:32:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7985248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TolkienGirl/pseuds/TolkienGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucy means light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all but the brightest stars

“Really? It really does?”

Helen Pevensie presses a hand to her youngest’s round cheek, matching smile for smile. “Yes, darling. Lucy means light.”

It’s the summer before the war. Lucy is quite young, though—

She is quite young her whole life. Then, to amend, if she ever could—she is _younger_ when her mother tells her. Edmund isn’t quite bad at school yet; there are family dinners and drives to the country. Lucy’s favorite game is hide and seek, and Lucy reads fairytales until she knows every word.

The princesses are always golden-haired and luminous. It makes her smile, to think of herself as one of them.

_Lucy means light._

Bombs fall on London; Father goes to war. Mother fades into distance, and Lucy’s eyes blur with tears. But she carries it with her, her favorite little secret that Aslan told her again and again when he looked to her eyes. She carries it in and out of the wardrobe, in and out of the train station, in and out of the portrait in the spare room.

 _Lucy means light_.

Edmund has nightmares, after Narnia. Lucy finds out about it when they are staying with the Scrubbs, because Eustace is a merciless little snipe about it.

One night, she hears a creak on the stairs, and finds Edmund sitting on the steps. She joins him. In the eerie darkness, his face is pale and ghostlike.

“Oh, Ed,” says Lucy, “Isn’t there anything I can do?”

She doesn’t ask him what he dreams of. He doesn’t ask why talking with Susan makes her cry, these days. Sometimes the things they don’t say communicate just as much as the things they do.

“A candle might help,” Edmund says, with a shrug. “Something to look at, when I—you know. Wake up.”

Lucy stands up so quickly it startles him. “Sorry,” she says. “I just—I have matches, and spare candles. From Mum. For reading.”

And with her hands outstretched she scrabbles for matches, to chase Edmund’s demons away.

On cloudy days she wanders gray streets looking for the sun, and when the sun cannot be found she contents herself with bringing smiles to the faces of passersby.

When her sister leaves for America she writes letter after letter after letter.

(Lucy means light.)


End file.
